Women He Liked + 

Women he liked, did shovel-bearded Bob, + 

Old Farmer Hayward of the Heath, but he + 

Loved horses. He himself was like a cob, + 

And leather-coloured. Also he loved a tree. + 

For the life in them he loved most living things, + 

But a tree chiefly. All along the lane + 

He planted elms where now the stormcock sings + 

That travellers hear from the slow-climbing train. + 

Till then the track had never had a name + 

For all its thicket and the nightingales + 

That should have earned it. No one was to blame. + 

To name a thing beloved man sometimes fails. + 

Many years since, Bob Hayward died, and now + 

None passes there because the mist and the rain + 

Out of the elms have turned the lane to slough + 

And gloom, the name alone survives, Bob’s Lane. + 